Welcome to the Fareham Society

Fareham, located roughly midway between Portsmouth and Southampton, is under intense pressure from major housing and commercial development. Many planning applications for such development are received and when refused by the Council are often appealed against to the Planning Inspectorate.

The Society seeks to protect the Borough from the harmful effect of such development.  It informs the Council of its views on such proposals and, where appropriate, attends the Council’s Planning Committee to make its observations.  When appeals are held the Society will inform the Inspectorate of its views and where necessary attend Hearings/Public Inquiries.

Some smaller scale developments, especially in Conservation Areas and affecting Listed Buildings, may also be harmful to the environment.  In such cases observations would also be made to the Council.

The Committee of the Fareham Society discusses key planning applications at its monthly meetings and submits its views to the Council.  Society Members are updated on this at its monthly meetings and via its thrice yearly Newsletters.  Copies of letters submitted may be found on the Council’s website.

All Councils are required to produce a Local Plan for their area to set out the vision for its future development and its policies on, for example, protecting the environment. They must cover a minimum 15-year period and be regularly reviewed.  Prior to adoption the Plan must be examined by the Planning Inspectorate.

Other than for the area covering Welborne the Council’s current development plan comprises the Fareham Local Plan 2037. This single document, recently adopted by the Council, replaced the previous “Core Strategy” and “development sites and policies plan”.  It sets out the planning strategy and the general scale and distribution of new development for the period up to 2037. The Fareham Society was heavily engaged in making its observations and concerns on this Plan to the Council and, in the examination process, to the Planning Inspectorate.

A close eye will be kept on any further reviews of the Plan.

The largest single development area in the Borough is Welborne, north of the M27.  This is for 6,000 homes, workplaces, schools, open spaces, shops and local community services to be provided over a period to 2036.

The principle of this development was established by the Council in 2011 and in 2015 the Welborne Plan was adopted to take this forward.

In 2019 outline planning permission for development broadly in line with the Welborne Plan was permitted.  With initial funding concerns on the provision of a new motorway junction for the site overcome development of the site is likely to begin in early 2023, with development starting at the north and working south.

The Fareham Society has been closely involved at all the stages of this scheme, outlining its concerns and observations.  It will now closely monitor the detailed applications that come forward.

In autumn 2022 the Council set up the Welborne Community Forum to foster communication between the Council, developer and interested parties. As one of the interested parties the Fareham Society is represented on it.

The Society will keep its Members updated on the observations made on the detailed applications submitted, and on the discussions at the Community Forum, in its monthly meetings and thrice weekly newsletter.

PfSH is a partnership of twelve local authorities around the Solent that aim to improve the environmental, cultural and economic performance of the South Hampshire area.

Amongst other things it focusses on the provision of housing given the demands upon south Hampshire and the duty of Council’s to co-operate on this matter. It has successfully overcome delays to development by developing nitrate mitigation measures thereby limiting the prospects of housing schemes being allowed on appeal contrary to the wishes of those locally.

To keep updated on the work of PfSH a representative from the Fareham Society attends its meetings and reports back to its Committee.  Members are informed on this through the monthly meetings and thrice yearly newsletters.

The Society keeps a close eye on any significant changes to Government Planning Policy and Legislation.

Of particular concern was the Government’s 2020 White Paper on planning. Had its measures been adopted this would have substantially reduced the opportunity of the public and groups such as the Fareham Society to make their observations on new development. Along with many others this Society strongly objected to many of the proposals in the White Paper.

Although those proposals were not taken forward there always remains the possibility of future reforms being mooted.   The Fareham Society will keep a close eye on this and comment as necessary.